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Arts|Stephen King to Shut Down His 3 Radio Stations in Maine
  
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stephen-king-maine-radio-stations.html

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Stephen King to Shut Down His 3 Radio Stations in Maine

The author, who owns the small independent stations in Bangor, said
that the decision was prompted by a desire to get his business
affairs in order.

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Stephen King, in jeans and a white button-down shirt, sits on a stage
and gestures with his hands.
The author Stephen King is shutting down his radio stations in Maine.
Credit...Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
Derrick Bryson Taylor

By Derrick Bryson Taylor

Dec. 3, 2024, 12:11 p.m. ET

Stephen King, the horror author whose books have sold hundreds of
millions of copies, inspired classic films and disturbed untold
nights of sleep, has long played another role closer to his home in
Maine: local media magnate.

For more than four decades, King, an enthusiastic rock fan, has owned
small independent radio stations in Bangor, Maine. It began in 1983
when he bought WLBZ and changed its call letters to WZON, in a nod to
his best seller "The Dead Zone." He added WZLO and WKIT, which bills
itself as "Stephen King's Rock 'n' Roll Station."

But now King, 77, is getting out of the radio business, having
covered steady losses that the stations said had run into millions of
dollars over the years. The stations are expected to sign off for the
last time on New Year's Eve and then shut down.

"While radio across the country has been overtaken by giant corporate
broadcasting groups, I've loved being a local, independent owner all
these years," King said in a news release in which he noted that he
was in good health but that he had been feeling his age and was
trying to "get his business affairs in better order."

"I've loved the people who've gone to these stations every day and
entertained folks, kept the equipment running, and given local
advertisers a way to connect with their customers," he said in the
release from the Zone Corporation, his radio company.

King said that he and his wife, Tabitha, were proud to have been a
part of the business for so long. A representative for King did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.

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